Preparation, Vital to Opportunity
In our year end staff meeting I quickly touched on some introspective points we as people need to focus on to make us better as a distance learning team. These characteristics can also be used to make us better husbands, wives, sons, daughters or ministry workers etc. The specific characteristic I touched on in the meeting was “prepare for opportunity before it comes”. What you do today really does effect what happens tomorrow. I could continue this and spin it into why we should prepare so we are better as an organization, but instead I want to take that principle and spin it so you grasp for other areas of your life other than just work. God really does have a plan for your life, but He also expects us to prepare for the time when He is ready to move within us. If we are lazy, complacent or disobedient to what He is refining us for, He will not be able to move you into that opportunity that He has waiting. Consider Noah, he had to build an ark that took between 80 and 120 years of preparation before God could move and fulfill His plan in Noah’s life.
Step 1: The first step in preparing for opportunity is obedience to God. Gen 6:22 (NIV) says “Noah did everything just as God commanded him.” Gen 7:5 (NIV) says “and Noah did all the Lord commanded.” Becoming more like Christ is a constant refining process that begins with obedience. Are you being obedient and allowing God to refine you right where He has you today for future opportunities?
Step 2: The second step is enduring and being open to the refining process God puts you through during the preparation stage. Take Moses for example, what did it take to prepare Moses to rescue millions of people from bondage and then prepare him to be a lawgiver of the 10 commandments? First, God prepared him through his family situation. Moses was born during difficult times, his mother had to give him up at 3 months for his own safety, and later became the Pharaoh’s daughter’s son. Second, God prepared Moses during his life at Pharaoh’s palace. He received the top education and became a major player in Egypt. Thirdly, God prepared Moses in the desert. At this point Moses made the decision to give up all the “perks” of Pharaoh’s palace and all his influence in Egypt. He then chose suffering with God’s people as he led them out of Egypt.
The point of the article is not to give you a sermon, but to show you that the principle of preparation is as alive today is it was during Moses’ and Noah’s time. Moses and Noah were in constant preparation for what God had planned for them. I encourage you to be in constant preparation for what God is doing in your life. Look at your situation today, either at work or outside work as a refining preparation for what God has for you. We sometimes can be so obsessed with where else we “want” to be, that we miss the preparation God has for us today. God is always at work within us and around us, even today no matter what situation you may think you want to leave. Live as Moses and Noah did, prepare for a God given opportunity before it comes.
“Many people believe that their greatest barrier to opportunity is having one, but the reality is that their greatest barrier is being ready when one arrives” John Maxwell
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[…] Guess what? This time in the valley is where God shapes me and builds my character for the times when I need to take the hill. He does not shape and stretch me on the hill that is only temporary. He shapes me during those long valley stretches in the mundane routine’s of life and daily interactions with people. It is in the small conflicts of daily life on the job, at home or at church that He refines us and our true character of Christ is shaped and revealed. I have to admit I am guilty of not taking these “valley” times seriously and only look for the next hill or challenge. What an opportunity I am missing by over looking these times! I guess it would be helpful for me to go back and reread my own devotional on “Preparing for Opportunity Before it Comes”. […]